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Genesys Core Rulebook
Publisher: EDGE Studio
by Fred D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/11/2018 06:55:46

Genesys is the basic Narrative Dice System used in the popular Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight, but aimed generically at whatever setting you want to create. Yes, YOU create. There is work here for the referee. Fantasy Flight promises some future setting books for Genesys, but currently there are none available, so each Genesys referee will need to craft their own game using the tools in this book plus any creative imagining and borrowing you can add. Notice the cover illustration. The center is detailed and in focus, but as the eye travels out to the perimeter the detail becomes more sparse and the image less focused. This is a beautiful metaphor for Genesys. It is The Beginning of many great games, but there must be an element of do-it-yourself involved. Go into Genesys with eyes wide open and with a vision of what you want it to be and it can be a very satisfying game. The Narrative Dice System uses Fantasy Flight "Genesys" dice - which differ from the Start Wars dice. You will need/want a pack of those to complete the game. I am not a huge fan of proprietary dice and that is why I knocked off a star in my rating. Otherwise, Genesys delivers. The Narrative Dice System facilitates "Heroic" play nicely and encourages players to engage in the drama and collective narrative that develops at the table by suggesting how the dice may be interpreted. The Narrative Dice System is a dice pool mechanic that tends to result in success with complications or failure with advantages. More improvisation is required of the referee than in a d20 or d100 system which are basically pass/fail. The real fun is to engage the players in helping to elaborate on what the dice outcome can suggest. If you like generic systems, I think Genesys is a good one. All games suggest a style of play and Genesys seems to work best with an expectation of a heroic, cinematic style of game. Not sure how genesys would deliver on grim, gritty, realistic or horror style games. Character death is just not enough of a threat for that feel. But, hey, this is DIY, so by modifying the Genesys rules almost anything is possible.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Genesys Core Rulebook
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Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (Original Edition)
Publisher: North Wind Adventures
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/06/2017 13:03:34

Fun to Say, Fun to Play!

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (AS&SH) must have one of the best names given to a game product, ever. The rules to AS&SH appear as a very clean and tidyed-up version (such as using a d12 for thief skills) of the 1st Edition Advanced Game using the OGL. The default setting of Hyperborea is one of the best published. It has a very "pulp fantasy" feel to it as suggested by the box cover illustration by Charles Lang, is self contained, is depicted on a nice hex map, is described in just the right amount of detail to leave room for individualization and it lends itself well to being used with just about any other setting as a pocket universe, lost continent or alternate dimension.

I ran this game as referee some time back for a short campaign for some Pathfinder/5th Ed. players who were curious about Old School play. The players began by making late 19th century Earth PCs who were passengers or crew on a steamship off the coast of Alaska. After some role-play on ship, things turned mysterious and weird. A cold mist, a spectacular northern lights display and a faulty fresh water condensor and they awake bound-up as dog sled passengers in Hyperborea. They are taken down off the frozen plateau and traded to some ancient looking Greek speaking folk who worship Athena and Zeus, etc. They quickly learn the language and are taught some local survival skills (class abilities) and start adventuring. They help a village recover some lost kids and become local heroes. While investigating an ancient temple complex, several of the original party perish and are replaced by "locals". The mini-campaign ran a half-dozen or so sessions and we then moved on to something else.

Some of the players remarked they enjoy the "Old School" type rules and classes - they started with just fighters, clerics and magic users, but for replacement characters could choose from several sub-classes as well. The "setting" of Hyperborea generated the most interest and I'll probably re-visit it. The mixture of cultures - vikings, kelts, and ancient Greeks imported from Earth's past with native Hyperboreans, Amazons, and Esquimaux (sound it out!) give quite a lot of variety while keeping the PCs human (mostly). The author, Jeffrey Talanian, states an intent to create a game consistent with the fantastic and weird worlds of R.E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. The two spiral bound books in the box are illustrated through-out by Ian Baggley in a manner that definitely adds to the weird, dark and dangerous feel of the game setting. Hyperborea has some ancient high technology roots that also add to its uniqueness. There is the possibility of exploring ancient ruins and discovering lost technologies, if the referee wants to go down that path.

The one area I personally feel could use a little more work is in the area of customizing the rules to the setting, especially regarding magic. AS&SH uses the bog standard Advanced Game magic system and spells, although wisely drops the mundane material components and casting segment complications. The Vancian system is retained however, which carries with it a promise of more predictable magic than a skill-roll outcome, magic point system and suggests a theory of magic as a mental exercise of mostly memorization. It is a bit "tame" for my taste. That aside, Mr. Talanian does include some new "atmospheric" spells such as "black cloud", "cataleptic state", and "mirror, mirror" and does his honest best to describe spell books and the acquisition of spell knowledge as something weird and dangerous. I am sure he gets it, but I think he wanted to stay true to the original game mechanics.

The AS&SH bestiary is a combination of traditional fantasy monsters and the Lovecraftian horrors. Dwarves are monsters, not PCs in AS&SH. Described as greedy and perverse, stunted and misshaped forgers of magic items which they are cursed to be unable to use themselves they remind me of Nibelungen Ring Cycle dwarves. Orcs are the off-spring of a swine daemon and Picts (a race of primitive humans). Tree-men are similar to Ents, otherwise, the usual Tolkien races are missing from AS&SH, but there are still plenty of bi-pedal baddies such as snake-men, ape-men, cave-men and ghouls.

So what is the appeal of AS&SH, besides a fantastic name. The rules are a nice, cleaned up version of the 1st Ed. Advanced Game giving us a game that can be played pretty much as written. The setting of Hyperborea is one of the best published settings I have come across in almost 40 years of gaming and were it not somewhat derivative of certain pulp settings, I'd call it genius. But the derived part is intentional in that it evokes a feel for the source material. There are really two good products here, the game rules and the setting.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (Original Edition)
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Far Away Land RPG: Quick Start Rules
Publisher: Simian Circle Games
by Fred D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/17/2015 13:20:55

Far Away Land is a role-playing game full of unique art that catches the eye (unless it doesn't for you), and novel rules that have that old school, rules-lite feel, but use different mechanics, so this is not a clone, folks. This is a re-imagined fantasy role-play experience that is both comfortably familiar and freshly new. The art, done by the author, or other-way-around, the rules, written by the artist really pulls me into the world of Far Away Land where I want to create my own experience inside the game. There are a lot of role-play games out there and many are a rehash of what some of us have been playing for many decades now, but Far Away Land takes me to a place I haven't been to before, a place that frankly makes me smile. This game, based on rolling a number of d6s and keeping the highest score, may not be the perfect fit for everyone, but it definitely isn't what we have come to expect in a fantasy role-play game. Far Away Land is a new experience in the frp gaming hobby, and I am liking it. The Quick Start Rules offers a complete game, but there is even more Far Away Land available. S get your appetite primed with the Quick Start Rules and then really dive in with the Tome of Awesome which combines all the titles in the Far Away Land system into one awesome book, yeah! Count me among the fans that have allowed the Tome of Awesome to take me to a Far Away Land of fun and adventure!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Far Away Land RPG: Quick Start Rules
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